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Apples popular iTunes download store reached the 100 million download target late Sunday in the US when Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas downloaded the DJ Dangermouse remix of UK electronica act, Zero 7’s downbeat ‘Somersault’.

Apple launched its 100 million song promotion on July 1st and offered just over 5 million songs for download in in July, a rate of just over 2.5 million songs each week.

Back in October 2003 Apple CEO Steve Jobs had predicted the 100 million download landmark to be reached by the (then with only US availability) music service by its April year anniversary. By the second week in March this year Jobs admitted the figure was nearer half that figure.

There was an ironic twist to todays iTunes 100 million download headlines. DJ Dangermouse was in the news back in February for a different reason when his album ‘the Grey Album’ remixed the vocals from Jay-Z’s ‘The Black Album’ and music sampled from the Beatles’ ‘White Album’ caused widespread panic amongst the music industry, in particular copyright owners EMI who issued cease and desist notices to websites hosting the ‘banned music’. The resulting ‘Grey Tuesday’ protest saw an estimated 1 million tracks downloaded in a day.

Elsewhere in other iTunes news the Times newspaper reported that Apple is on the verge of agreeing a deal with independent record labels (or more precisely the Association of Independent Music the organisation that represents the labels interests) that will allow its iTunes music service to sell their tracks, citing sources close to the talks, the newspaper said a pact could be announced on Tuesday, ending a feud that has kept independent labels off iTunes since its launch in the UK, France and Germany last month.

The new deal is expected to ease the concerns of independent record labels that they would be locked into long-term contracts at fixed prices.

The percentage cut that they receive from songs sold over iTunes is also expected to be closer to the rates received by multinational record companies such as EMI and Sony Music. The royalty that Apple pays record companies from sales of songs over iTunes is a closely guarded secret, but is understood to range between 45 per cent and 60 per cent of the retail price.

Related Reading

Apple iTunes Music Store Hits 100 Million Song Mark [Mac News Network]
iTunes Tops 100M Downloads Mark [BBC News]